Eleanor brightens even the hottest day in Furnace

LOVING LIFE Eleanor de Eyto is pictured on the shores of Lough Feeagh after her daily dip. Pic: Karen Cox

Journeyed 76-year-old loves the water of Lough Feeagh

Interview
Michael Gallagher

The gig was rostered as a trip to Furnace during the hottest week of the year where scribe and photographer would wander through the village speaking with locals about their seasonably appropriate address.
However, as famed Scottish poet, Robert Burns wrote in 1786 ‘The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.’
Instead of walking, talking and shutter-clicking, my trusty photographer, Karen, and I encountered a true force of nature; an adventurer; a human fireball who brightened our existence in her own unique and irrepressible style.
Eleanor de Eyto is 76, going on 17; she’s ebullient, funny and fierce in the sense of fighting tooth and nail to find the light and laughter of life.
On Thursday evening as the dashboard temperature gauge displayed numbers rarely exhibited before, I arrived at our pre-arranged meeting point, the Salmon Research Centre on the banks of Lough Feeagh.
The beauty of the setting far outweighed my descriptive abilities and as I took in the majesty of the place, a voice wafting through the air encouraged me to dive into the lake and enjoy the mirror-like waters stretching out in front.
The invitation had arrived from a woman in the water, and little did I realise, the fun evening stretching out in front of us. The inquisitive scribe, the brilliant photographer and a woman with a melodic name were soon immersed in stories, laughter and absolute amazement as Eleanor de Eyto brought us on a whistle-stop tour of her life.
In truth, the conversation would fill this entire edition of The Mayo News and I’m not being presumptuous when I predict my future work rota will include further conversations with Eleanor and lots of laughter.
Our new friend swims in Lough Feeagh every day and is the greatest example of lifelong exercise one could hope to meet.
When Eleanor (nee Share) came into the world, Ireland was a very different place. Her home in Sutton, County Dublin (now a city suburb) was out in the sticks and she enjoyed a childhood where the sense of adventure became encased in her soul.
“I learned to swim in Lough Derg where we would go on family holidays. I’ve always loved swimming and it has been a constant in my life since I was little,” she explained before telling why the exercise means so much to her.
“I had a tumour removed from my brain in my 40s which left me impacted on one side of my body and swimming has helped me a lot since then,” Eleanor added as a wonderful story emerged from her lips.
“I was recovering in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire and found myself in the same ward as the former Minister for Finance, Richie Ryan. At the time, I was a complete mess and my eye was twitching a lot. John Bruton and all these top politicians were always coming in to see Richie. They’d be there chatting away and suddenly they’d look over and see this mad woman constantly winking at them. They definitely thought I was mad.”
Once the laughter from that tale dissipated, we were once again immersed in Eleanor’s life story. She has lived in the hills behind Furnace for more than 15 years after spending half a lifetime in Trim, County Meath. The Sutton native met her husband of 50 years, Miguel, when he was a ground-breaking engineer and she a leading businesswoman. They would attend functions in the Spanish embassy in Dublin as the world moved through the sixties and the lovebirds embraced exciting changes.
Miguel was from a sheep-farming family in the North of Spain and when Eleanor arrived in their midst, she was the first Protestant or Irish person they had ever encountered. However, the de Eytos fell in love with their new in-law as soon as they met her and she quickly became an integral part of the family which is spread across Spain, Argentina and further afield.
Miguel worked in an engineering plant in the Meath Gaeltacht village of Rathcairn and Eleanor’s ability to merge time and space came to the fore on Thursday evening when she looked out into Lough Feeagh and pointed towards a metal fish-cage in the water.
“Miguel and his colleagues made that many years ago, long before we ever heard of Furnace or knew about this amazing place. It’s funny how life links so many things together. The fish cage sits out there every day. My daughter works here in the building and we live up the road,” Eleanor added with a twinkle in her eyes as she readied herself for another tale.
“Miguel’s factory was in the Gaeltacht so they got the contract of building the Corrib Princess, a cruiser for the river in Galway. However, when they built it, it was too big to get out the doors, so they had to knock the wall. I thought that was so funny,” she continued as the majesty of our setting washed over us.
Soon we were back on a wild mystery tour again as Eleanor told us of trips to Brazil and time spent teaching English in Spain before going back to university in her sixties to study English, Spanish and Medieval Ireland as other adventures came over the horizon.
“I had always been talking about walking The Camino (de Santiago – a pilgrim path in Galicia, north-west Spain) so when I finished college my daughter encouraged me to do it. Miguel was worried about me doing it on my own, but we talked it through and I set off. I loved it; out wandering every day, meeting all types of great characters and having the craic. It took me two and a half months but eventually I completed the 900km trek. It was wonderful and I would recommend anyone contemplating doing it to do it on their own. They’ll love it.”
That adventure was an ideal trek for the woman who loves psychology, reading, life-long learning and the positivity which burns inside all of us.
“We’re always learning; always growing and developing. It drives me mad when people say ‘I can’t’. Try it – have a go – you can achieve so much. I’m always looking for new challenges. I took up art classes a few years ago and now I’m immersed in painting all types of things,” she added with great understatement as we gazed at pictures of superb portraits and creations of all kinds on Eleanor’s phone. Her paintings took our breath away, but like everything in our conversation she was embarrassed by our amazement. Life is simple for Eleanor de Eyto – live, love, laugh and learn.
Karen and I were glued to the phone and the impressive images while Eleanor threw in facts she saw as inconsequential such as breaking her back, climbing up the hills behind Newport last week to swim in Lough Doo and teaching Spanish kids to use ‘PlamΡs’ in regular conversation.
As already alluded to – the gig was to produce an article about baking weather conditions in Furnace, but it turned into something completely different. Furnace was stunning; the weather was wonderful but neither the setting nor the climate could compete with the truly stunning woman we encountered on a never-to-be-forgotten meeting on the edge of the water.
Eleanor de Eyto is truly a unique human – a woman with a lot of living, loving, laughing and learning to do yet … and of course a daily swim thrown in too.